Farewell, Brian. It's been a long, strange, and ultimately satisfying trip through Infoworld, your books, and your contributions to Brian's Buzz and Windows Secrets Newsletter all these years. You and your colleagues here have made for interesting Thursdays for me for a very long time.

I wish you well in your future projects, and I hope you will drop us a line here in The Lounge or in the newsletter from time to time to let us know what you are up to.

As for your retirement form Windows Secrets, you have earned a long, peaceful rest. But I know you will not remain on vacation forever. I expect the best of your work is yet to come.

Thank you for your leadership in revealing the secrets which Microsoft often would rather we Windows users would not know. Your tips and tricks have made my life with Windows much easier in many ways.

As for the future around here, I know Tracey's work, and I believe we are in very capable hands now. And Woody Leonhard, as well as all of the other contributors, will offer a unique and informative experience moving forwards, as well as some lively debates and discussions.

This announcement comes as a shock to all of us in the IT community. Your insight will be missed by many of us who have followed your writings over the years. Hoping your future days are long and many. You are to be congratulated for the staff you have put in place to carry forward providing and discussing Windows Secrets.

Should you find the need to edit or correct some spelling in the days ahead please feel free to stop by here

Thanks for all the years of dedication to writing about the things we needed to know.

Job well done Brian! Congratulations!
When you're done relaxing, would love to talk to you about presenting a session to the Minneapolis chapter of STC (Society of Technical Communication). Since I can't contact you directly, please put epotter at krollontrack dot com in your address book and drop me an email. (I'm still working on getting to Machu Pichu myself and Phuket can't be far behind! )

Thank you for all of your articles and books, which have saved me countless hours of frustration and made computing so much easier and more productive. It won't be quite the same without you around, but you deserve to go do something for yourself for awhile, so enjoy.

You can always reach me using the contact form at BrianLivingston.com, and e-mails of a personal nature sent to me via Windows Secrets will continue to be forwarded to me, too.

I very much appreciate all the warm and thoughtful messages I've received today from people who've been reading my columns over the years. I'm looking forward to a break from deadlines, yes, but fortunately I'm not actually dead, so who knows where I'll pop up.